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(Specimens.)

G. E. MOORE.-

MANUFAGTURE OF PAPER PULP.

No. 354,432. Patented Dec. 14, 1886.

u PETERS. Phmum m m, Waihinginn. 0.0.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

crnnon n. MOORE, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

MANUFACTURE OF PAPER-PULP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 354,432, dated December 1-4, 1886. Application filed November 19, 1885. Serial No. 183,320, (Specimens) To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Grnnon E. MOORE, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Paper-Pulp, of which the following is a specification.

If cotton-seed is first separated from the cot ton, it is surrounded by a hull to which is attached a considerable quantity of cotton fiber that can only be removed with great difficulty. WVhen these hulls, together with the adhering fibers, are removed from the oil-bearing portions or kernels of the seed, they constitute a mass, which in the following description will be designated the husks, and which consists of portions of the broken hulls and of the fibers adhering to these broken hulls.

The object of my invention is to utilize these husks by separating the fibers from the broken hulls and rendering them available for paperpu p.

The apparatus which may be used in carrying out my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, which represents a longitudinal section.

I first take the husks and grind them in a mill or stamp battery of any suitable con struction until the fibers have become as far as possible detached from the broken hulls and the latter have become reduced to a suitable degree of fineness, sifting the material from time to time, so as to remove inthis way as much of the non-fibrous portions as possible. The grinding and sitting may be done either wet or dry and by the use of sieves or screens of any known or suitable construction. \Vhen the huskshave been sufficiently ground, they are subjected to the following treatment for the purpose of separating the fibers from the particles of the hulls which are still mixed with them: This mixture of ground fibers and ground hulls, if moist or wet, is first dried, and then it is placed in a chamber or vessel of any suitable construction and exposed to a current of air whilebeing agitated by stirrers or other suitable agencies, so that the particles constituting the mixture are caused to diffuse themselves through or to float in the current of air and to pass with 'it through one or more chambers in which the different constituents of the mixture are precipitated at different points, according to their various specific gravitics and the size of the particles. In this operation it is convenient to use a series of chambers, through which the current of air can be made to pass successively, so as to obtain separate products in each chamber. One or more of the chambers may also contain deflectors of any suitable construction or material, against which the particles floating in g suitably adjusted to the size or weight of they particles contained in the mixture and to the size of the chambers or vessels, the material that settles in the first chamber will be found to consist chiefly of the hulls and other nonfibrous material, while the lighter particles are carried farther and deposited in the more remote chambers.

The fiber so obtained is dark in color, and only adapted to the manufacture of articles more or less coar ;eas, for example, the coarser kinds of paper. To purify it still further, I treat it by digesting it, with or without the aid of heat and with or without pressure, with a solution of caustic or carbonated alkali, preferably with a caustic-soda solution of about 5 Baum, whereby the coloring matter and other impurities are to a large extent rendered soluble in water and may be removed by washing with water, leaving a product of a light color, that may be rendered very white by bleaching with chloride of lime or other suitable bleaching agent. After washing and drying the product is then a pure white cotton fiber adapted to paper -making and other industrial applications of ground cotton fiber. If it should be found, however, that the washed and dried product be not entirely free from colored specks, it may be reblown, whereby a pure white product may be obtained.

In the accompanying drawing, the letters a a a represent mills of any suitable or wellknown construction, in which the husks, either ICO previously more or less separated by grinding and sifting or not, are ground.

I) b are the chutes, by which the ground husks are conveyed to the bin 0, where they meet the current of air from the fan or blower d, and are carried therewith into the agitator e, where the solid particles and the air are intimately mixed by rotating stirrers p 12, playing between the projections 0 0 on the sides of the agitator.

In the drawing, the contents of the bin 0 are represented as being drawn into contact with the blast from the blower by-suction. When the character of the material does not admit of this action, the material can be fed to the blast by a screw-feed or other suitable arrangement opening either into the chamber or en largement ofthe blast-pipe, or into the agitator, or applied at any other suitable part of the apparatus.

The blades of the stirrer may conveniently be inclined at an angle, so that by the rotation the current of air and suspended matters are propelled with great rapidity in their passage through the agitator. From the agitator the current enters the chamber-f, where the coarser and heavier particles subside to the bottom, while the current carrying the finer particles next enters the chamber t where it strikes against the partition h, passing downward and under the partition and again ascending until it reaches the outlet, which can be provided with a valve, j, by means of which the pressure ofthe air is regulated and the rate ofsubsidence in the chamberg controlled. In the chamberg the finer and lighter nonfibrous substances are deposited, while the current carrying the now chiefly purified fiber enters the chamber 7c, where most of the fiber subsides. From the chamber is the current passes through one or more pipes, Z, provided with a number of bags of flannel, m m, or other porous material, in which more or less fiber, that may fail to subside in the chamber k, is caught, while the air filters through the cloth and escapes; or, in lieu of these bags, the air from the chamber k may pass through a chamber, where it may be washed by ajet or jets of water, or by allowing steam to condense therein, so as to remove any fiber that it may carry with it. The bottoms of the chambers f g and k are inclined and can be provided with troughs, in which endless screws-n a n are placed. These screws receive the deposited substances and convey them out of the chambers into suitable receptacles. By means of weighted valves on the tubes or spouts, into which the screws a a force the deposited substances, the escape of air from the chambers can be prevented and the action of the screws nan can be automatically controlled.

In my process the grinding to which the husks are subjected also grinds the fibers, and by exposing the ground husks to the air-float ing operation above described the fiber is obtained almost free from foreign material. It is at once ready for such purposes, as, for instance, for making paper, and it needs no further preparation than may be required to break the lumps and disseminate the fiber through the water in the paper-machine.

Paperpulp heretofore known produced from cotton fibers of the character referred to contains particles of the kernels and hulls of cotton-seed in such quantities and conditions as to injure the character and appearance of the pulp and make it unsalable and unfit for use in the manufacture of the finegrades of paper. My paper-pulp, on the contrary, is not liable to that objection, and such particles thereof as might be present could only be detected by the microscope, and are not visible to the naked eye, so that they will not and do not injure the pulp for any use. In consequence of this, and as my paper-pulp is deeolorized, bleached, and contains an alkali, it is practically pure white, and is therefore merchantable and useful where the former must be rejectcd and is valueless.

\Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. As a new article of manufacture, a pure cotton-fiber paper-pulp consisting of the fibers which adhere to or grow upon the hulls of cotton-seeds, and possessing the alkaline, decolorized, and bleached characteristics herein set forth.

2. As a new article of manufacture, paperpulp consisting of decolorized and bleached fiberwvhich adheres to or grows upon cottonseed hulls, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GIDEON E. MOORE. [L. s]

\Vitnesses:

W. HAUFF, E. T. KAsrnNnUBEn. 

